


late-night muse

by indemnis



Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Making Out, Piano, Songwriter Hyungwon, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 14:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12889725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indemnis/pseuds/indemnis
Summary: Platinum songwriter Hyungwon is awake at 3:46AM to compose, and his boyfriend is in a cute sweater.





	late-night muse

The air is still in the dead of night, cold and arid in the room. It’s the awkward season between winter and spring, and despite the upcoming season of love and fresh beginnings, discomfort creeps its way into the crevices of Hyungwon’s consciousness.

His eyes are wide open and he’s staring blankly at the pastel-coloured ceiling, the few notes spiralling in his mind. It’s driving him insane, how the melody repeats itself in the most maddening way, like a crappy pop song drilling in a hole in his brain.

It’s probably what’s prompted him to toe his way out of the room and Hyungwon finds himself in front of the piano at 3:46AM, the circles under his eyes dark and heavy.

Chewing on his lower lip, Hyungwon pulls out his manuscript notebook that’s already filled with pages and pages of pencil scribbles, and flips to a fresh page.

Pencil in hand, Hyungwon presses onto the keys and creates the melody that’s been running through his head the whole evening. The actualisation of the tune does little to cure him of his earworm, but it settles him by just a bit.

Determined to continue the fragment of music in case he forgets all about it tomorrow, Hyungwon breathes in and places both hands on the keys.

He tries a chord, and shakes his head when the notes clash. He tries another. It results in a cacophony of trial and error, and Hyungwon grows more frustrated than when he had started out.

It’s usual practice in composition, he understands as much, but as a songwriter who has written no less than 20 platinum hit songs, Hyungwon can’t help but feel a sense of despair wash over him.

So he tries again as the minutes tick by, and it just _feels_ almost like morning, a dreary blur in the hours before the sun rises, a stagnant lull in time. For someone who cherishes sleep (a little too much), Hyungwon feels like he’s about to shut down right here, right now.

He considers the possibility of his fatigue being the main thing that’s hindering his progress; it’s obvious he’s overflowing with inspiration, yet the notes just don’t seem to cooperate.

Just as he’s about to nod off, there’s a quiet knock on the door of the lounge. He jolts up from his head hanging halfway over the piano.

“Coffee or alcohol?” There’s a familiar voice from the doorway, and Hyungwon lifts his head to see Kihyun standing there with his eyes bleary, half-open.

Hyungwon’s sweater -- the one he’d been wearing for the whole day before it got discarded haphazardly on the floor when they went to bed -- hangs loosely on Kihyun. His left shoulder is bare to see as Hyungwon’s sweater is way too large for Kihyun’s smaller frame, the fabric draping off the side.

His collarbones are visible from where he is, the dim light from their hallway reflecting off of them, casting a glow on his fair skin. Hyungwon has to remember to breathe.

He looks adorable, yet at the same time, ready to feast upon.

It’s almost amazing how easy it is to fall into habit when living with Kihyun, becoming used to Kihyun getting infuriated at Hyungwon’s inability to wake up on time for anything, and Hyungwon getting annoyed at Kihyun’s obsession with keeping things neat and tidy.

And yet every time he sees this man, he realises he’s ready to go through all of that again, a kind of novelty in all the familiarity, amidst the warmth in his heart that reminds him why he puts up with all of his quirks and incessant nagging.

He loves Kihyun. He thinks he knows it as he moves along in his life with him, but he only really knows it for sure when Kihyun smiles his lopsided goofy grin at him.

Everything seems more certain, his feelings and affection that were once only a concept now realised outside of his lucid dreams in the form of a Yoo Kihyun.

“Sorry?” Hyungwon asks, not able to take his eyes off Kihyun, his milky white legs on full display as the edge of Hyungwon’s sweater barely reaches his knees.

Kihyun gives Hyungwon a playful glare, before shifting his weight onto the other side. “I asked, coffee or alcohol?”

Hyungwon turns around briefly to look at the clock on the wall which reads 5:20AM. He groans and buries his head in his hand, and Kihyun chuckles lightly.

“It’s too early for coffee, but alcohol probably won’t help my headache, would it?” His voice is quiet and his syllables are slurring. Kihyun offers a brief smile before nodding his head, padding to the kitchen as he shivers.

Hyungwon gives it another go, finally finding something that could possibly work, his hand going to the pencil rested on the piano immediately as he marks out the note. His hand is shaking, but it’s probably just the jitters from too little sleep, that feeling of wanting to upset your insides, your stomach churning.

The scent of strong black coffee hits him face first, and Hyungwon looks up to see Kihyun waddling over with two mugs of hot drinks, his hand outstretched to pass Hyungwon’s to him.

The younger man takes it with a soft thanks, and Kihyun finds his way to the space beside him on the piano bench. His legs are still bare, and Hyungwon looks at them briefly before he frowns.

“Aren’t you cold?” he comments, and before Kihyun gets to answer, Hyungwon puts his mug down on the piano and walks over to the sofa, pulling a blue fleece blanket and a pillow into his arms.

Spreading the blanket out, Hyungwon covers Kihyun’s pale thighs and places the cushion in his lap, the older man looking up at him with starry eyes.

“For you to hold onto, I don’t know.” Hyungwon looks embarrassed, a hint of pink on his cheeks, though if Kihyun teases, he’ll say it’s just the cold.

Kihyun doesn’t tease, and smiles gently as he mutters a thank you, English Breakfast tea against his lip as he breathes in its scent.

Hyungwon picks up his mug again, and they stay there, in a state midway between sleep and full consciousness, silence encapsulating them in a comfortable sphere.

Hyungwon downs at least half of the dark liquid and feels the tingles in the tips of his limbs dissipate by a fraction. He looks at Kihyun with adoration in his eyes, gaze tracing the silver mess atop his head, his eyelids threatening to force themselves shut, the permanent pout on his lips when he’s spacing out.

It’s very cute, and very Kihyun. He relishes these few moments of tranquility between them, the warmth from Kihyun’s body heat sufficient to put his mind to ease.

He puts the mug back down, and his fingers land on the keys. He remembers a time where he had been embarrassed, afraid, even, to have Kihyun around when he composed.

To be fair, it was never an attractive sight. Hyungwon losing his mind as he raged and threw manuscripts around, or trying to sort out the notes but playing it incorrectly, the tune so jarring it brought about a wince, was never a side he’d wanted to show Kihyun.

But as it got comfortable around him, Hyungwon realises that it didn’t matter that his song composition mode wasn’t the best image portrayal he could muster. It didn’t matter, because Kihyun didn’t mind. He was always happy to smile in encouragement, or in other times when he’s more awake, offer insightful suggestions that have more often than not led Hyungwon out of a rut.

Hyungwon tries, jabbing on a few keys a little harder when things don’t work out as well, and Kihyun yawns from time to time beside him, looking briefly as he jots down notes in his book.

Hyungwon feels like he’s reaching his limit, and he’s barely managed to churn out 8 bars, each and every single one of them difficult to come by, but will probably be scrapped when he wakes up with more sleep and realises how shitty they are.

Kihyun slurps on his tea noisily as Hyungwon tries and fails terribly to produce more lines. Kihyun’s elbows are rested on the cushion in his lap, and he suddenly puts his tea on the piano and pulls the pillow away, letting it fall onto the ground.

“Hey.” Kihyun is looking up at Hyungwon with lights in his eyes, and Hyungwon has to try to keep himself together so that he doesn’t coo at the sight of Kihyun just looking at him.

“Mmm?”

“I wanna kiss you.”

Hyungwon shrugs, like it’s not a strange request to ask of your boyfriend in front of a piano before the sun has risen on a Tuesday morning. “Okay. Kiss me, then.”

And Kihyun does. He leans in, Hyungwon meeting him halfway, and his hands move up instinctively to cup his face, long fingers wrapped around the back of Kihyun’s head, his thumb making warm circles on his cheeks.

Kihyun tastes like tea and toothpaste, fresh and minty, while Hyungwon tastes like his coffee, strong and bitter. Hyungwon’s full lips come to shape around Kihyun’s thin ones, the older man craning his neck to gain more access, his breath heavy and warm against Hyungwon’s cupid bow.

Kihyun throws his arms over Hyungwon’s shoulder and hooks them around his neck, pulling him closer, his torso flush against Hyungwon’s.

Slipping his tongue in, Kihyun makes a small sound of contentment, a quiet little hum of agreement as Hyungwon’s tongue finds its way around his smoothly.

The younger man tilts Kihyun’s chin up by an inch and kisses him deeper, bites on his lower lip gently for a few seconds before letting go, tip of his tongue tracing the insides of Kihyun’s mouth, the pad of his thumbs running near the apples of his cheeks, and he presses before spreading them outwards.

Kihyun makes a tiny sound of approval, a small groan when Hyungwon’s kiss feels harsher against his lips, and he feels like he’s being manhandled from how Hyungwon wants -- _needs_ \-- him closer to him. Hyungwon’s want burns, two layers of fabric insufficient to conceal his fervent desire for proximity, to feel Kihyun’s warm skin against his.

It leaves them both hanging, asking for more, and as a string of saliva connects their lips when they pull apart, Kihyun’s face is blushing, while Hyungwon’s breathing is quick, a smudge of red at the tips of his ears.

“That was something,” Kihyun says quietly, still trying to collect himself as he cringes a little belatedly at the bitterness from Hyungwon’s coffee. Hyungwon chuckles, and reaches out to pull Kihyun into his arms.

The smaller man fits perfectly in his embrace, his head resting comfortably at the crook of Hyungwon’s neck, and he snuggles in despite still being flustered from the make-out session. Hyungwon is warmer, his frame larger, his arms long and holding him tight and close.

“I love it when you’re so soft like this. It’s cute.” Hyungwon’s fingers are carding through Kihyun’s metallic grey hair, tugging at it gently in some places because he knows it calms Kihyun down. It’s peaceful, and he can feel Kihyun’s heart racing against his.

“I’m not cute,” Kihyun states matter-of-factly, but as if he has every intention to contradict himself, he looks at Hyungwon with an apparent pout, his lower lip sticking out.

“What a sulky baby,” Hyungwon says quietly, bending down to place a warm kiss on his forehead. “Okay, okay, you’re not cute. You’re fierce and angry.”

Kihyun doesn’t seem happy with that either, and shakes his head, burying himself deeper into Hyungwon’s arms. The younger man laughs, throwing his head backwards.

“Well, you can’t be unhappy about all of the options. What are you, then?” He asks, like he’s encouraging a child to speak up in class, and Kihyun mumbles against his shirt.

“I’m just Kihyunnie.”

Hyungwon cannot help the grin on his face, so wide it might split his face into two, and he strokes Kihyun’s hair quietly. “Okay, Just Kihyunnie. You just be you, okay?”

Kihyun’s voice is tiny, but he mutters an _okay_ under his breath, and Hyungwon feels like his chest might explode from how full it is, his hands shaking again, but now because of how impossible it feels to own so much happiness at one time.

Hyungwon is a bit of a cynic, and he’s morbidly afraid that this happiness won’t come to last in the years to come, but for now, if it’s Kihyun, he’s willing to hope that it’ll withstand the test of time.

Kihyun extricates himself from Hyungwon’s hold, eyes lingering on the piano as he yawns again, and Hyungwon chuckles. “Do you want to go back to bed?”

Kihyun holds his gaze. “Not without you, no.” And there it is again, Hyungwon’s heart thumping so furiously it might just find its way out of his body, Kihyun still smiling lazily like he didn’t just ruin Hyungwon entirely with one sentence.

“You’re tired, though,” Hyungwon says, and Kihyun yawns as he shakes his head. “I’m okay. I have a few more hours until work starts. Unless I’m distracting you by being here.”

He is, but Hyungwon would rather deal with a lack of productivity than let Kihyun out of his sight right now. “No, no, you’re not. You can stay here if you want.”

Kihyun nods slightly, and holds the pillow to his chest as he cocks his head to the side as Hyungwon’s attempts to produce more notes to no avail. His index finger tapping lightly on one of the keys closer to Hyungwon, Kihyun presses onto four notes consecutively.

“What do you think about this?” he asks, completely invading Hyungwon’s personal space as he leans over, almost falling into Hyungwon’s lap, jabbing four notes on the piano.

“Mmm.” Hyungwon presses his lips together and plays them again with a chord, and his eyes widen by an inch, his head bobbing up and down. “Not too bad.”

Kihyun beams, grinning from ear to ear as Hyungwon works his way with Kihyun’s suggestion, surprised that it worked a lot better than he had expected. The sudden gush of motivation and the possibility that his all-nighter might not have gone to waste pushes him forward, and his fingers run along the piano more smoothly, the notes coming naturally now.

Hyungwon loses track of time entirely, and he’s nearing the end of where he’s happy for the verse to end, having no clue how to start the next, but too tired to think about that anyway.

He’s on his last few bars when there is a weight falling on his shoulder, and he turns to see Kihyun asleep, his head resting on Hyungwon’s shoulder, his entire frame leaning on Hyungwon’s side. The pillow is pulled up close to his face as he dozes off, his lips protruding unconsciously.

Hyungwon laughs, but tries his best to minimise his actions on the left side so as to not wake Kihyun up. He knows he’s a light sleeper, quite different from Hyungwon himself, and having to coax him back to bed will be a challenge and a half.

He scribbles the rest of the verse carelessly on the manuscript and plays it through once, tweaking a few notes that seem to not blend in, and then one last time to make sure that it flows.

It works perfectly, and that tightening of his chest from how full it is intensifies when Hyungwon looks at Kihyun’s sleeping face, convinced that he’s been blessed with all the luck in the world to land himself someone like Kihyun.

Now, Kihyun was by no means perfect. He had quite a few idiosyncrasies that could appear intolerable to a select number of people, and he did have the tendency to freak out at most things, but they were part of what made Hyungwon like him.

And he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Carefully shifting Kihyun to a more upright position, Hyungwon slides his arm under his knees and the other around his torso and lifts. Kihyun is a lot heavier than he’d imagined.

He almost drops the man on the way to the sofa, but he reaches there in one piece, and has to catch his breath once Kihyun is on the couch, curling into his pillow like a foetus.

Hyungwon smiles, and while the sofa is too narrow for them both, Hyungwon climbs his way onto the sofa and slots himself between the back of the sofa and Kihyun, pulling the older man’s back against his chest, feels the inhales and exhales of Kihyun’s breathing, the ups and downs of his chest.

It lulls him into calmness, and the world seems to stop for a while, for the both of them. As Hyungwon falls into dreamland, he reminds himself that when he awakes, he’ll manage to see one of his dreams actualised in the form of a warm, kind and lovely man he calls his boyfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know why I wrote this is it weird that I wrote it for one purpose and one purpose only: I want to write about Kihyun wearing Hyungwon's sweater and is super cute because he's small and Hyungwon is long and tall and it would look so fucking oversized on him and I loved that imagery so much ):  
> Just know that this fic, all almost-3k, was written for the sole purpose of me wanting to write Kihyun in Hyungwon's sweater and falling asleep on his shoulder.
> 
> Anyway, kihyungwon is my religion. This era has been too kind to Kihyungwon shippers -- these boys are on fire!
> 
> As usual, kudos and comments are appreciated, and you can come scream at me @kihyunghyuks <3


End file.
